APRIL 2024 Southwest Retort

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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NEWS SHORTS

COLUMNS

How mosquito larva guts could help create highly specific insecticides…..…..…..…..….5

A simple way to harvest more ‘blue energy’ from waves…………………………………..7

Testing environmental water to monitor COVID-19 spread in unsheltered encampments……………………………….....….......8

Golfers’ risk from pesticides used on turfgrass is likely low, studies find.…….....10

Water-based paints: Less stinky, but some still contain potentially hazardous

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How mosquito larva guts could help create highly specific insecticides From the ACS Press Room

“Chemical Probes to Interrogate the Extreme Environment of Mosquito Larval Guts”

Journal of the American Chemical Society

Did you know that the world’s deadliest animal is the mosquito? And Aedes aegypti is one of the most dangerous. This bug spreads viruses that cause dengue fever, which was recently declared as an epidemic in Puerto Rico. Research published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society reports new molecules that label proteins in the unique, alkaline environment of the Ae. aegypti digestive system that could help scientists develop insecticides to fight back.

The Ae. aegypti mosquito pictured here can carry viruses for Zika and dengue fever, but their larvae’s guts could hold the secret to new, highly specific insecticides.

Though mosquito insecticides exist, the pests are developing resistances, and advancements are needed to reduce their numbers and slow the spread of pathogens they carry, including the malaria parasite and the Zika and dengue viruses. Fortunately for scientists, the digestive system of certain mosquito larvae, including Ae. aegypti, is unique: A

pH spikes at the beginning of their midgut, creating a highly alkaline region, then tapers off to a more neutral pH environment as digestion continues. So, Michael Riehle, John Jewett and colleagues wanted to develop molecular probes that would react to this change in pH, only “activating” in the alkaline portion of the midgut.

The team synthesized two base-reactive molecules and a control molecule for their test probes. These were each introduced to groups of 30 to 40 mosquito larvae, which took them up via filter feeding and passed them through their digestive systems. In the alkaline midgut, the two new base-reactive molecules underwent a series of chemical changes, allowing them to bind to proteins in the gut and be detected by the researchers using fluorescence. Larvae that ingested the control molecule did not exhibit this fluorescence. Reaching and labeling larval gut proteins with these molecular probes creates targets that could one day be used to develop new insecticides, according to the team. Additionally, since most organisms have neutral or acidic digestive systems, these alkalinespecific molecular probes wouldn’t affect them, minimizing possible side effects and making future insecticides highly specific for their target. The researchers say that this specificity and adaptability could make insecticides more resilient to change and more effective at fighting mosquito-borne illness-

Continued on page 19

A mosquito on human skin. frank600/ Getty Images

From the ACS Press Room

A simple way to harvest more ‘blue energy’ from waves

“Space Volume Effect in Tube Liquid–Solid Triboelectric Nanogenerator for Output Performance Enhancement”

ACS Energy Letters

As any surfer will tell you, waves pack a powerful punch. Now, we are one step closer to capturing the energy behind the ocean’s constant ebb and flow with an improved “blue energy” harvesting device. Researchers report in ACS Energy Letters that simply repositioning the electrode from the center of a see-sawing liquid-filled tube to the end where the water crashes with the most force dramatically increased the amount of wave energy that could be harvested.

The tube-shaped wave-energy harvesting device improved upon by the researchers is called a liquid–solid triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG). The TENG converts mechanical energy into electricity as water sloshes back and forth against the inside of the tube. One reason these devices aren’t yet practical for large-scale applications is their low energy output. Guozhang Dai, Kai Yin, Junliang Yan and colleagues aimed to increase a liquid –solid TENG’s energy harvesting ability by optimizing the location of the energycollecting electrode.

The researchers used 16-inch clear plastic tubes to create two TENGs. Inside the first device, they placed a copper foil electrode at the center of the tube the usual location in conventional liquid–solid TENGs. For the new design, they inserted a copper foil electrode at one end of the tube. The researchers

then filled the tubes a quarter of the way with water and sealed the ends. A wire connected the electrodes to an external circuit.

Researchers harvest more energy from waves by moving a liquid–solid nanogenerator’s electrode to the end of the tube where the water crashes.

Adapted fromACS Energy Letters 2024, DOI: 10.1021/acsenergylett.4c00072

Placing both devices on a benchtop rocker moved water back and forth within the tubes and generated electrical currents by converting mechanical energy the friction from water hitting or sliding against the electrodes into electricity. Compared to the conventional design, the researchers found that the optimized design increased the device’s conversion of mechanical energy to electrical current 2.4 times. In another experiment, the optimized TENG blinked an array of 35 LEDs on and off as water entered the section of the tube covered by the electrode and then flowed away, respectively. The researchers say these demonstrations lay the foundation for larger scale blue-energy harvesting from ocean waves and show their device’s potential for other applications like wireless underwater signaling communications.

Continued on page 19

From the ACS Press Room

Testing environmental water to monitor COVID-19 spread in unsheltered encampments

“Environmental Surveillance of Flood Control Infrastructure Impacted by Unsheltered Individuals Leads to the Detection of SARSCoV‑2 and Novel Mutations in the Spike Gene”

Environmental Science & Technology Letters

To better understand COVID-19’s spread during the pandemic, public health officials expanded wastewater surveillance. These efforts track SARS-CoV-2 levels and health risks among most people, but they miss people who live without shelter, a population particularly vulnerable to severe infection. To fill this information gap, researchers reporting in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters tested flood-control waterways near unsheltered encampments, finding similar transmission patterns as in the broader community and identifying previously unseen viral mutations.

In recent years, testing untreated wastewater for SARS-CoV-2 incidence and dominant viral variants, as well as other pathogens, has been vital to helping public health officials determine infectious disease transmission in local communities. Yet, this monitoring only captures information on viruses shed from human feces and urine in buildings that are connected to local sewage infrastructure. Beyond the pandemic’s impact on human health, it also exacerbated socioeconomic difficulties and increased the number of people experiencing homelessness and living in open-air encampments without access to in-

door bathrooms. To understand the prevalence of COVID-19 among people who live unsheltered, Edwin Oh and colleagues tested for SARS-CoV-2 in waterways near encampments outside Las Vegas from December 2021 through July 2022.

Testing waterways, such as this one, located near unsheltered encampments could help monitor COVID19 infections in a community that is often underrepresented in current surveillance methods.

Edwin Oh

Using quantitative polymerase chain reaction, the researchers identified SARSCoV-2 RNA in more than 25% of the samples tested from two floodcontrol channels. The highest detection frequency over the study period aligned with Las Vegas’ first wave of omicron variant infections, as confirmed through parallel testing at a local wastewater treatment plant. The researchers say these results suggest a similar level of transmission was occurring within the unsheltered community as it was among the general population. Then the researchers conducted whole genome sequencing to identify the SARS-CoV-2 variants in the waterways. These samples largely contained the same variants identified in the broader community. Deeper computational

Continued on page 19

From the ACS Press Room

“Golfer Exposure to Traditional Pesticides Following Application to Turfgrass”

ACS Agricultural Science & Technology

For many, spring heralds fresh air and exercise on the golf course. But do players risk exposure to unsafe levels of pesticides used to beautify and maintain a golf course’s green grass? To find out, researchers asked volunteers to play 18 holes on a simulated course sprayed with common pesticides. They report the results in ACS Agricultural Science & Technology, saying there is likely limited cause for concern over toxic exposure from pesticide-treated turf.

John M. Clark

There are plenty of studies on pesticide exposure among people who tend and harvest crops grown in treated environments. But John M. Clark and colleagues couldn’t find

much comparable information about individuals who play sports, including soccer and golf, in the great outdoors. So, his team designed a study to investigate golfers’ potential risks from four pesticides, which have low volatilities and relatively low toxicities for humans, and are commonly used on golf course turfgrass: cyfluthrin (insecticide), chlorothalonil (fungicide), MCPP-p (herbicide) and 2,4-D (herbicide).

For the study, the researchers created what they deemed a “worst-case-scenario” 18-hole course: All areas of a simulated golf course were treated with the manufacturers’suggested maximum amount of all four pesticides. Then they recruited eight volunteer golfers to play a full round on the treated turf one hour after pesticide application and to remain on the course for four hours. To measure pesticide exposure, four of the volunteers wore cotton full-body suits with veils, socks and gloves that would pick up contact residues and personal air samplers that would capture airborne residues. The other four volunteers wore cut-off cotton suits over their own golfing clothes and submitted urine samples after the round.

After the volunteers finished golfing, Clark’s team measured pesticide residues on the dosimetry suits and air samplers and found that the hand and lower leg segments picked up the most residue while airborne residues contributed little to exposure. The researchers also measured the volunteers’ exposure risk from the levels of pesticides found on the suits and in the urine samples by calculating the hazard quotient (HQ). The team found

Volunteer golfers wore cotton suits while playing 18 holes of golf for a study investigating their level of exposure to common turfgrass pesticides.

From ACS Press Room

that the HQ values from the golfers’ exposure indicated little risk to the four pesticides used in this study.

Finally, Clark and colleagues compared the insecticide cyfluthrin results to their 2008 Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry study with older, neurotoxic insecticides at the same simulated golf course site and using the same protocols. Both studies’ HQ values were well below 1.0, the level that indicates potentially unsafe exposure. However, in the prior work, the volunteers’ urinalysis HQ values of 0.0318 and 0.054 for chlorpyrifos and carbaryl, respectively, were an order of magnitude greater than the volunteers’ urinalysis HQ of 0.0043 from this 2024 study with the insecticide cyfluthrin. The researchers say this comparison shows the potential benefit of using modern, lower volatility and less toxic pesticides, which could further reduce golfers’ risk of adverse effects from exposure.

The authors acknowledge funding from the United States Golf Association and the New England Regional Turf Foundation.

From the ACS Press Room

Water-based paints: Less stinky, but some still contain potentially hazardous chemicals

“Chemicals of Emerging Concern in WaterBased Paint Products”

Environmental Science & Technology Letters

Choosing paint for your home brings a lot of options: What kind of paint, what type of finish and what color? Water-based paints have emerged as “greener” and less smelly than solvent-based options. And they are often advertised as containing little-to-no volatile organic compounds (VOCs). But, according to research published in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters, some of these paints do contain compounds that are considered VOCs, along with other chemicals of emerging concern.

Volatile and semi-volatile organic compounds are found even in “greener” water-based paints.

Rattankun Thongbun/Getty Images

Paint consists of four ingredients: pigments, binders, additives and a liquid. If the liquid is water as in latex and some acrylic paints it’s classified as a water-based paint, rather than solvent-based. Historically, solvent-based paints were easy to apply and durable, though they released foul-smelling VOCs into the air both during and after application, stinking up a newly painted room. These airborne VOCs

can cause respiratory irritation and headaches, among other potential health problems, especially in high concentrations or over long periods of time. Despite waterbased paints sporting labels with “zero-” or “low-VOC,” their formulations could contain potentially dangerous chemicals of their own. So, Ying Xu and colleagues wanted to understand more about these paints’ formulations. The team notes that there are differing definitions of what constitutes a VOC, some of which are stricter than others, including the World Health Organization’s definition used in this research. The team collected 40 water-based paints from around the world, all ranked among the top 70 most-sold brands, and many labelled as zero- or low-VOC. Both dry and wet samples were analyzed by gas chromatographymass spectrometry to determine their composition.

• Twenty semi-volatile organic compounds were identified in concentrations ranging from 10 to 35,000 parts per million. While less likely to be in a gaseous form, these can still persist indoors for years, often incorporated into dust.

• Endocrine-disrupting phthalates, which act as binders, were largely absent in the tested paints. However, several phthalate-replacement chemicals were detected their toxicities are still being assessed.

• Nearly half the analyzed samples contained measurable amounts of isothia-

Continued on page 19

Using chemistry and a 300-year-old technique to reinvent a drink

WASHINGTON,April 1, 2024

Adding milk to an alcoholic drink and then curdling that milk is a 300-year-old preservation technique that was used by none other than Ben Franklin. Join George as he discovers the chemistry that makes this technique so useful, and learn how to make the best espresso martini you’ll ever taste.

https://youtu.be/ef0heKtiuvQ

Youtube ID: ef0heKtiuvQ?si

Reactions is a video series produced by theAmerican Chemical Society and PBS Digital Studios. Subscribe to Reactions at http://bit.ly/ACSReactions and follow us on Twitter @ACSReactions

Call for Nominations

Outstanding Community College StudentAward-ACS DFW

The Dallas-Fort Worth Local Section of theAmerican Chemical Society has an annual $200 award for community college students with outstanding performance in chemistry. The nominated student should have ideally completed the general chemistry sequence and be enrolled in organic chemistry. Only one student can be nominated from each community college in DFW.

Please send me your nominations to Mihaela@utdallas.edu before May 01, 2024. Please include the name on the nominated student and the mailing address.

Outstanding Senior in ChemistryAward-ACS DFW

The Dallas-Fort Worth Local Section of theAmerican Chemical Society has an annual $200 award for outstanding seniors in Chemistry or related principles at each college/university in the area each year. Only one student can be nominated from each college/university in DFW.

Please send me your nominations to Mihaela@utdallas.edu before May 01, 2024. Please include the name on the nominated student and the mailing address.

Crawfish could transfer ionic lithium from their environment into food chain

NEW ORLEANS, March 20, 2024 From cell phones to watches to electric cars, lithiumion rechargeable batteries power a plethora of devices. The increased use of this technology means more lithium could find its way into the environment as consumers discard electronic products. Now, researchers describe how lithium can accumulate in a common Southern crustacean: the crawfish. As the season for catching and eating mudbugs comes into full swing, the researchers’ findings highlight the potential implications for public health and the environment.

“As aquatic organisms, crawfish can take up large amounts of lithium dissolved in water. Because other creatures including people eat crawfish, looking at them allows us to see how lithium moves through the food chain, and potentially into us,” says Joseph Kazery, a professor of biology.

https://youtu.be/F52Ho-Ni1O0

Two undergraduate students in Kazery’s lab at Mississippi College, Andrew Doubert and Javian Ervin, are presenting results of their experiments on uptake of ionic lithium by different crawfish organs, as well as the impact of seasonal temperatures. “If crawfish are raised near a landfill or a polluted site, runoff could expose them to lithium, with effects we don’t yet fully understand,” Ervin says. “I myself eat crawfish, so this issue is important to me.”

Lithium contamination is not new. Even before lithium-ion batteries became widespread, lithium was, and still is, used as a medication to treat mood disorders. It enters the water supply in those applications because typical wastewater treatment does not remove drug contaminants. At high levels, lithium can have toxic effects on human health, including potentially damaging heart muscle cells, as well as causing confusion and speech impairment. In other animals, it can cause kidney damage and hypothyroidism. Studies have also shown that when lithium accumulates in plants, it can inhibit their growth, Kazery says.

Although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recommends discarding lithium-ion batteries at dedicated collection points, Kazery says they often end up in landfills. Soaring demand along with lax disposal practices suggests lithium is on the verge of becoming a significant environmental contaminant, he says.

As fully aquatic organisms that spend their lives within a relatively small area, crawfish (Procambarus clarkii) reflect local lithium contamination and could serve as powerful bioindicators of its presence in an environment. The lithium they contain could be passed through the food chain to predators, including humans, either directly or indirectly through crawfisheating fish that people consume.

For its experiments, the team purchased crawfish bred for research. Knowing that the liver collects toxins from the human body for subsequent removal, Doubert wondered whether

lithium would accumulate in the crawfish version of this organ: the hepatopancreas. To find out, he added ionic lithium to food for five crawfish, while giving another five lithium-free food. He then examined the amount of lithium present in four of their organs after one week. He found, on average, the most lithium in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, followed by the gills, the hepatopancreas and, finally, the abdominal muscle in the tail.

The researchers think the GI tract likely contained the highest level because the lithiumspiked food remains there during digestion. Meanwhile, the gills and the hepatopancreas both pick it up while removing it from the body. People predominantly eat the tail, which appears to take up lithium, but not as readily as the other body parts studied.

Crawfish can accumulate lithium, an environmental contaminant that is expected to increase as battery use grows, and that could affect the people who eat them.

Javian Ervin

Doubert also found that 27.5% of the lithium he fed them had passed from the animals’ GI tracts into other tissues. Animals further up the food chain can accumulate higher levels of toxic substances if they eat contaminated prey, so lithium will likely become more concentrated in the predators of crawfish. The researchers expect the high rate of absorption Doubert saw to exacerbate this accumulation in both humans and the other animals that eat crawfish.

Water temperature that crawfish inhabit varies significantly throughout the year. Those shifts affect the animals’metabolism, even causing them to become inactive during winter. Knowing this, Ervin decided to look at the effects of temperature on lithium uptake. He placed crawfish in tanks kept at temperatures as low as 50 degrees Fahrenheit and as high as 90 degrees Fahrenheit and added a consistent concentration of ionic lithium to the water. After five days, he found that lithium uptake by the abdominal muscle and a part of the crawfish that Doubert did not study the animals’ exoskeleton increased in the warmest tank. These results suggest that the animals may contain the most lithium during the warm months, according to Ervin.

The crawfishes’ weight also decreased in warmer water. At this point, it’s not clear how or whether the crawfishes’ weight loss was connected to the lithium they accumulated, Ervin says, noting that the team plans to follow up on these results.

“A lot of people think the use of lithium-ion batteries is a good thing right now, but it is important to explore the effects that may be coming down the road,” Doubert says.

The research was funded by Mississippi College’s Department of Biological Sciences and the Office of Research, Department of Student Research.

The many flavors of edible ants

NEW ORLEANS, March 17, 2024

Insects are typically unwelcome visitors to a picnic, but they could be a flavorful, nutritious and sustainable addition to the menu. Eating insects is common in some parts of the world, and some species are even considered delicacies. Ants are one example, sometimes roasted whole for a snack or ground and used to add flavor and texture to dishes. Researchers now report the unique aroma profiles of four species of edible ants, which taste markedly different from one another.

https://youtu.be/5G5KvHOm06Q

“I'm interested in ants because I once led a summer field study in Oaxaca, Mexico,” says Changqi Liu, an associate professor of food science. “You can easily find different edible insects in the market there, just like other food ingredients.”

There have been few prior studies on the flavors of edible insects. But understanding flavor profiles could help the food industry formulate products with these readily available species. “If there are desirable flavors, scientists can investigate ways to promote their formation, and if there are undesirable flavors, they can find ways to eliminate or mask these odors,” says Liu.

To better understand which compounds contribute to the flavors of edible ants, Liu and his team at San Diego State University analyzed the odor profiles of four species: the chicatana ant, common black ant, spiny ant and weaver ant.

The researchers identified the volatile compounds present in samples from each species, using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, and matched them to odors sensed using an olfactometer. They were puzzled by some volatiles for which they were unable to sense an odor; the team later figured out those chemicals were ant pheromones. Even at high concentrations, humans aren’t able to smell the alkanes that ants use as chemical messengers. But they were able to identify other noticeable odors that contribute to the flavor of these ant species.

The team found that common black ants have an acidic and vinegary smell, primarily because of their high content of formic acid, which is a compound the ants secrete from venom glands. The researchers also detected the presence of large alkanes the ants use as alarm pheromones. Unlike common black ants, the chicatana ants tested did not contain formic acid, and their predominant smell was nutty, woody and fatty. The researchers attributed fatty, grassy odors to

The common black ant has a sour flavor that can be used in place of lemon juice. Changqi Liu

the presence of aldehydes. They say the nutty, roasted smell comes from pyrazines, compounds also produced when meats and bread are cooked. Chicatana ants use a type of pyrazine as a trail pheromone.

Weaver ants were characterized as having a nutty, sweet and caramel-like aroma caused by the presence of various pyrazines and pyrroles, but the researchers also detected hay and urinelike off-flavors likely due to high concentrations of amines. The team also analyzed the composition of ants at various developmental stages. They compared adult spiny ants to the same species in the pupa stage. Like common black ants, the adult spiny ants contained formic acid. In contrast, the pupa did not contain formic acid, because venom glands grow as they mature.

Chicatana ants have a nutty, fatty flavor and are commonly consumed in parts of Mexico to add texture and flavor to dishes and sauces.

Changqi Liu

Next, Liu and his team hope to further investigate the flavor profiles of more ant species and developmental stages like ant eggs, which are considered a delicacy in some countries. So far, the team has only analyzed female chicatana ants, known as queens, but they would like to compare the flavor profile to male ants, or drones, of the same species. The researchers would also like to investigate how different processing affects the flavor of these insects and to conduct sensory evaluations 1 with a sensitivity to crustacean shellfish may experience similar reactions to insects. Also, while edible insect production produces fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional animal farming, prices are high because large-scale farming of insects is still new. And consumer acceptance in some countries is a challenge for the food industry.

Nevertheless, Liu believes insects could be a great addition to the menu. “They can have very diverse and interesting flavor profiles. And that really increases the culinary possibilities of using these insects to create delicious food,” he says. Telling people about the edible insects’ nutritional and environmental benefits promotes people’s willingness to consume them, he adds. “But I don't want people to feel that they are making a sacrifice by eating these insects. I want to show that they can actually taste very good, while being nutritious and good for the environment.”.

The research was funded by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)-National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)-Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI) Education Grants Program, the USDA-NIFA-From Learning to Leading: Cultivating the Next Generation of Diverse Food and Agriculture Professionals (NEXTGEN) Program, the San Diego State University FacultyStudent Mentoring Program, and the San Diego State University School of Exercise and Nutritional Sciences Student Research Grant.

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Tarrant County College-Northeast.

We would like to report out paper entitled, "CourseApprenticeshipBased Undergraduate Research and Its Impact on Student Degree Interest" was recently accepted to Journal of Chemical Education

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jchemed.3c01079

The Doherty Award is given for excellence in chemical research or chemistry teaching, meritorious service to ACS, new chemical methodology (for the industry), solution of pollution problems, and advances in curative or preventive chemotherapy. Nominees may come from industry, academia, government, or small business. The nominee should be a resident member in the area served by the ACS DFW Local Section, and the work should have been performed here. The award is $1500 and an engraved plaque.

The Schulz Award is given to high school chemistry teachers, who, like the late Dr. Werner Schulz, bring that something extra to the teaching of chemistry. The nominee and/or nominator need not be ACS members. Nominees should show excellence in chemistry teaching, as demonstrated by testimonials from students and fellow teachers, results in student competitions, and diligence in updating and expanding scientific/teaching credentials. The award is $1500 and an engraved plaque.

The DFW Section instituted the Chemistry Ambassador Award to recognize an outstanding Section member who has made a significant impact by promoting chemistry to the community. The 2024 Chemistry Ambassador of the Year award is based on peer or selfnominations to the selection committee. Submissions should be one page in length and address the community outreach activities either through teaching, service, or working with legislators to affect public policy. Submissions will be evaluated on the impact made, which may include but not limited to how many people were reached, impact on individual people in the community, and exemplary commitment to the promotion of chemistry in the community. The award is $1000.

Each nomination should contain a completed nomination form, a cover letter highlighting the nominee’s accomplishments, and a copy of the CV. One or two additional letters may accompany nominations. The nomination package should be sent by email as a single pdf file to Dr. Nick Tsarevsky at nvt@mail.smu.edu. Nominations remain active for five years but should be updated annually.

The deadline for submission of nominations is extended to May 15, 2024

From the ACS Press Room

continued

How mosquito larva guts

Continued from page 5

es.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation, the 2023 Technology Research Initiative Fund and the National Institutes of Health.

A simple way to harvest more ‘blue energy’

Continued from page 7

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the National Key Research and Development Program of China, and acknowledge computing resources from the High Performance Computing Center of Central South University.

Water-based paints:

Continued from page 10

zolinones preservatives that have been linked to skin irritation and asthmatic symptoms.

• In 24 of the wet paint samples advertised as either zero- or low-VOC, 11 different VOCs were detected at concentrations up to 20,000 parts per million.

These concentrations represent the chemical

composition within the paint, not the air. Further studies are required to understand how much of these potentially hazardous compounds become airborne as painted surfaces are drying. The researchers say that this work could allow for the design of safer paint products in the future.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Testing environmental water to monitor COVID-19

Continued from page 8

analysis of the viral sequences identified three novel viral spike protein mutations in some waterway samples, but the researchers have not yet examined what impact these mutations might have on viral function or clinical outcomes. Regardless, the ability to detect and identify SARS-CoV-2 in environmental water samples could help improve public health measures for a community that is often underrepresented in current surveillance methods. The researchers also say monitoring waterways could warn health officials of unexpected variants circulating in the community.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Water Resources Research Institute of the United States Geological Survey.

From the Editor

Judges are needed for the upcoming Meeting-in-Miniature onApril 27! To volunteer, contact Jonathan Dannett (jdannett@udallas.edu) or Prajay Patel (pmpatel@udallas.edu).

Nominations for DFW Section awards are due by May 15: Schulz, Doherty, and ChemistryAmbassador. Outstanding student awards are due by May 1.

The three video articles from the New Orleans national meeting, via theACS Press room, particularly caught my eye. Adding milk to an alcoholic drink...and then curdling it...well, Ben Franklin did it. Ants as flavoring? sounds interesting. But the article and video on crawfish was the major eye-catcher for me. As a native of South Louisiana and a Cajun, I have to say, as does one of the authors, “I myself eat crawfish, so this issue is important to me”.

“If crawfish are raised near a landfill or a polluted site, runoff could expose them to lithium, with effects we don’t yet fully understand,” Javin Ervin says. “Lithium in runoff from discarded batteries sounds like a major problem; crawfish live in shallow waters and would be particularly exposed to such run-off.”